as mudaf, implying that it is not composed of only one material (animal dung) but is a mixture. The sweepings from hot baths included urine and human wastes, which Ibn Bassal describes as dry and salty, unsuitable for use as fertilizer unless mixed with other types of manure. Ibn Bassal gives two recipes for composting pigeon (hamam) and possibly donkey (himar) manure, though the translation is uncertain. Bassal says the excessive heat and moist qualities of pigeon dung works well for weaker and less hardy plants, especially those affected by cold temperatures. Human waste, on the other hand, Bassal advises using in hot temperatures because there is no heat to it. Pig dung, he cautions, will destroy pastures and poison plants, a view also shared by non-Arab writers like Columella and Cassianus Bassus. Compost made without manure is considered less desirable; Ibn Bassal calls this type muwallid, made with herbage, straw and grass, ashes from ovens, and water. Some of Bassal's text was copied by the Yemeni writers Al-Malik al-Afḍal. Legacy Ibn Bassal's works were studied several centuries later by Abu Jafar Ahmad Ibn Luyūn al-Tujjbi (d.1349) of Almeria who based his treatise Kitāb Ibdā' al-malāha wa-inhā' al-rajāha fī usūl sinā'at al-filāha on Bassal's work. See also Arab Agricultural Revolution References External links The Filāḥa Texts Project: Ibn Baṣṣāl Botanists of the medieval Islamic world 11th-century people from al-Andalus Spanish agronomists Agriculture in Spain 11th-century Arabs Agronomy 11th-century agronomists